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Nope, everybody else has fled, scattered for safety, and only I, 'Dumb Investor', dared to step in: Standard Chartered(STAN.L) shares dropped 25% and I swooped on London’s best – and as of this morning – most over-sold bank.

Not long after 11am this morning I bought in at £11.36 and now the shares are at £11.85, after the bank was struck by US allegations that it conducted secret transactions with Iran.

I'm in for £1,000. Admittedly, that’s a big gamble; it could lose its US banking licence etc – but so far have we seen any bank really be punished? No. They can get away with anything.

And admittedly my little gain so far is vulnerable, but no critic out there can deny that I’ve matured as an investor.

Everyone knows that Standard Chartered is the only London-listed bank with a decent balance sheet, and it’s not reliant on the depressed British punter to provide its profits. Nope, two-thirds of the readies come from Asia.

I'm with you - picking up shares at 11.22 and then some more at 11.31 (share price not time). So I hope we have been brave rather than stupid, When a blue chip drops by this much you have to hold your nose and take the plunge.

Folks you should be ok. Shares being dumped by institutions that are required to do so, but market is narrow due to the big stake by Temasek. So, just bide your time - the US issue is an old one - and looks very agenda oriented. It's also an old topic - at what stage is a line drawn over US demands to know absolutely everything. But equally, dont expect all to be squeaky clean. When you go looking for trouble, you will find some.

I ADVISE ALL TO WAIT AND SEE . SCB have denied it all ( as far as I can see) and either they should sue the US Authorities for whatever it takes on behalf of their shareholders ( was it an US loud mouth who spoke out of turn- they do tend to do this !?) or is it true? Whatever, investors are left guessing and I'd like SCB to tell us more.I have been an investor for years and in my case a 25% fall still leaves me in good profit, My gut reaction is to buy more but with such a volatile market I'm sitting on my hands awaiting more information.

Ah well, it is alright for these rich investors with loads of cash to trade and speculate.

Easy come, easy go. I suppose the few successful trades have encouraged a degree of recklessness. You may win, but it will lead to bigger losses when others go wrong, because of confidence instilled from the odd success. Tread carefully.

Loving all the comments and think this difference of opinion is what makes the stock market more than just a place to invest, I wonder if the negative comments come from people that are a bit sore that they haven't made a large gain today like those of us that we're brave enough did. Big blue chips rarely give investors the chance to buy at such a discount and buying Barclays and bp after sell off's recently has been very profitable, as is stand chart so far where my stop is above my entry level. I think it is fine to have a long term buy and hold account and another dealing account to take advantage of these short term fluctuations. Good luck to the brave!

dpedlar, perhaps, but even if I had the money this would be one of those mad money punts.

I suppose the words spoken by the authority are sabre rattling, no, far more than that, the sabre is drawn and the subject is being threateningly menaced, particularly as SCB drew the attention of the authority to the defaults. I would tend to believe SCB, and sue the authority for damages. If they pulled the licence, then SCB would fold, wit a possible catastrophic effect in the Far East in terms of a loss of a major player which, if they did it would have very serious knock on effects to trade in that region. It could even be criminal, menacing statements to cow a body into accepting an unjust penalty, as the court of appeal said some years ago, obiter, that this could be construed as blackmail, albeit APPARENTLY lawful.

Do I detect just a teensy weensy hint of sour grapes from those who missed out on yesterday's fall in the share price?

For the record, I am not a short term trader and did hold SCB in my portfolio before - as a means of gaining access to developing economies outside Europe and the US. So overall, I am still down because of yesterday's events but this opportunity has helped soften the blow and my view of SCB's long term prospects remains unchanged.

And thanks Crap Trader, I hadn't realised that the shares go ev-div today so that is another nice little earner.

Well done Spotdog, I have unloaded two thirds of my purchase from yesterday, I am trying to hold the last third but as the gain is impressive it is a struggle. I hope people don't take away credit from us by saying it was a gamble, it is just part of a much wider strategy that includes longer term buy and hold plus shorter term efforts based on fundamental's, technical's and scooping up big blue chips that drop 20% + in a day